Stringed instruments typically include a plurality of strings grouped together along a fingered keyboard. For instance, a guitar includes six strings stretched across an elongated keyboard neck. The strings are depressed at various points on the keyboard to form different musical notes. Musical chords may be formed by depressing individual strings at different points along the keyboard.
The forming of chords on stringed musical instruments takes a certain degree of manual dexterity and skill. Playing instruments such as the guitar is therefore difficult at best for the novice, and presents the handicapped with sometimes insurmountable challenges.
Various attempts have been made to provide automatic chord forming apparatus that can be attached to the neck of a guitar or other stringed instrument. The goal of such apparatus is to simplify the procedure for forming musical chords by simultaneously depressing several strings of the guitar in response to depression of a single actuating key. Several previous attempts to provide a guitar chording apparatus include U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,446,108, 1,120,091, 831,238, and 589,658.
An effective guitar chording apparatus must be able to simultaneously and positively depress a preselected group of strings, enabling the guitar to produce consistent, clear, and melodious chords. The apparatus must be able to be quickly and easily attached or detached from the neck of an instrument, and most preferably should be adaptable to keyboards of various widths. An effective guitar chording apparatus needs to be compact, designed with a minimum of parts, capable of forming a large number of different chords, and easy to manufacture. None of the guitar chording apparatus previously developed have been able to combine each of the above enumerated necessary attributes into a single device.